About Egyptian tourism and hostels

It was after dinner the evening before our planned ITB visit and I was in the hostel common room practicing my juggling with a couple of friends when Igor Jurišič, our guide and professor Dr. Tanja Lešnik Štuhec came by to have a word.

»Me and Igor have been thinking,« Tanja said. »Do you see that older gentleman sitting on the sofa over there? He's from Egypt, he speaks about 6 or 7 languages and has been coming to the ITB for about 40 years. Igor knows him. We were wondering if you wanted to do an interview with him. We could then publish it in the Globetrotter and the school newspaper.«

And there I was, still holding my juggling balls. Quite taken aback, as you can imagine. »Are you sure? Now? I mean, I'm not even sure what we'd talk about, It sounds a bit much...« But they worked it out already. »Don't worry, we'll do it tomorrow after breakfast, you can prepare some questions until then. Think about tourism in Egypt, the history of ITB and so on. Now come on, Igor will introduce you.«

OK, I said, what have I got to lose. Chances like that don't just drop out of the sky. We walked over, shook hands and introduced each other. It turned out that Mr. Yehia just had a couple of minutes to spare and asked if I wanted to do the interview right away. What have I gotten myself into. But of course you can't say no to such an invitation. So I sat down beside him and let things run their course.

I am ex-secretary of state for tourism and former president of the Egyptian Youth Hostel Association. Egypt is a country of about 1 million km2, 88 million people and we have a history of about 7000 years ago with the building of the pyramids and the city of Luxor, which was the capital of Egypt for more than 2000 years during the time of the Pharaohs. The main economic activities are tourism, agriculture and industry. Tourism plays a large role – it is about 12% of the national income and gives 13% of the foreign currency. It also employs around 5 million people. Of course other sectors like construction depend on it too. It is second after the income of the Suez Canal. We also have the Red Sea with resort towns such as Hurghada and Marsa Alam and cultural tourism in Luxor, Giza, Cairo and Saqqara. In 2010 we recorded around 13 million tourists, but the number has fallen to about 9 million as a result of the revolution [Arab Spring, late 2010 through 2011]. We hope to get around 20 million tourists by the year 2020. Most tourists that come to Egypt are from Russia, England, Germany, France, Italy and similar countries. Many people also come from the USA, Latin America and Africa. 

The tourism in Egypt is very cheap, you can get there for 400€ and spend one week in a full board, all inclusive hotel. In Egypt people say »know your country and welcome your tourist.«

Now, about youth hostels. We started with youth hostels in Egypt in 1954, about 60 years from now. We have 18 youth hostels, I am the vice president of the association, I met many people from Slovenia, especially when we came to Slovenia for an international conference in 2012. We spent 13 days, it was my second visit to Slovenia. I like Bled, Maribor, Ljubljana and also my friends Igor and Anja. Do you know Anja?

Yes, he's also from Maribor. We hope that we can exchange the experience with Slovenia and exchange students as well, because I am in charge of incoming tourists and foreign relations. With Igor we are working on student exchange programmes between the two countries. The students in Egypt are very eager to visit Slovenia. They also know about Tito and how he visited Luxor with our president Nasser – they had good relations. Any other questions?

Yes, I speak 7 languages, because I have been working in tourism since 1956. I am a professor at the faculty of tourism, I teach marketing, organisation, promotion and development of tourism.

Yes, since 1966. I visited the first ITB, when there were only 7 countries included. At the first ITB here were 7 of us from Egypt and the others died already, I am the only one left. I come here almost every year to attend the fair.

Well, from those 7 countries we now have a convention of about 230. It is a great place to meet, share experiences and promote tourism. We show our destinations, meet with tour operators and show them our services. You should come by our hall tomorrow and we will show you what we have.

We are planning a growth of about 5% this year and around 7-8% next years, especially from tourists from the Middle East and Africa. We have made a push of publicity at this year's ITB, attracting people to come to Egypt. As I said before, the political revolution in Arabic countries a couple of years ago caused a big drop in visitors. We are also aiming at students. Especially the next two days, when the fair will be open for public, will be very important. We will show them our hostels and tell them they are welcome in a pocket-friendly country.

We have very good relations, we have a Slovenian embassy in Egypt and there are a lot of opportunities for import and export. They come to about 5 million dollars a year.

Well, if they ever travel to Egypt, they should definitely use our Youth Hostels. They are very cheap, you can get a bed and breakfast package for only a few euros. There is much to see and many things to learn and I am sure everyone will have a good time in Egypt.